Sub-diffraction-Limit Imaging in Optical Hyperlens

Sub-diffraction-limit imaging in the optical hyperlens based on cylindrical metamaterials is studied. Some parameters of hyperlens, such as the dispersive relation and the divergence angle of imaging, are numerically analysed with the ray trajectory method and effective medium theory. The dependence of imaging properties on dielectric constant is discussed. As a result, a 0° divergence angle is obtained for the best imaging effect. This work will be helpful for the design, structure fabrication and resolution improvement of the optical hyperlens.     

Near-Field Optical Transfer Function for Far-Field Super-Resolution Imaging

The far-field superlens based on surface plasmon polaritons （SPP） has shown great application potential, but it is difficult and time-consuming to reconstruct the far-field image. We derive a near-field optical transfer function （NOTF） of a silver slab and analyse its validity so that accurate information of nano-seale object in the near-field can be computed rapidly. The NOTF is helpful not only for analysing the super-resolution imaging process in far-field, but also for providing a track to describe the transmission of optical information from near-field to far-field by using the optical transfer functions theorv only.     

Temperature-Insensitive Fibre-Optic Acceleration Sensor Based on Intensity-Referenced Fibre Bragg Gratings

A temperature-insensitive acceleration sensor using two fibre Bragg gratings （FBGs）, based on reflection spectrum intensity modulation and optical power detection, is proposed and demonstrated. A cantilever beam is used to generate acceleration-induced axial strain along two sensing gratings, which are glued on the two opposite surfaces of the beam. Because the two gratings operate within the linear spectral range of a light source, formed by a thermally-tunable extrinsic Fabry-Perot optical filter, the intensity difference of the two reflections from the gratings is proportional to the acceleration applied. This eliminates the need for sophisticated wavelength interrogation of the gratings, and it also endows the sensor with immunity to temperature variation. Compared with a commercial micromachined accelerometer, the sensor is proven to be capable of accurately detecting acceleration.     

Optimization of two-photon absorption enhancement in one-dimensional photonic crystals with defect states

One-dimensional photonic crystals with a defect layer of CdS were fabricated. The observed enhancement of two-photon absorption (TPA) in the CdS layer can be attributed to the intensified optical field confined within the defect layer of the photonic crystal. The results show that the enhancement of TPA coefficient depends basically on the number of periods of the photonic crystal and the defect mode position in the photonic band gap. The observation agrees qualitatively with the expectations of a computation by matrix transfer formulation.     

Detection of VUV photons with large-area avalanche photodiodes

The room-temperature response of large-area avalanche photodiodes (LAAPDs) to 128- and 172-nm light pulses is investigated. The minimum detectable number of photons, which can produce a signal just above the noise level, is found to be around 1300 and 600 photons, respectively. The LAAPD relative statistical fluctuations in the detection of 15 000 photons of 128 nm and 25 500 photons of 172 nm were found to be about 3.9% and 2.2%, respectively. Both the minimum detectable number of photons and statistical fluctuations do not depend on the photon wavelength, but rather on the number of charge carriers produced by the light pulse in the LAAPD. For these light levels, good LAAPD performance is already achieved for gains as low as 30 to 60.     

Influence of Vacuum Organic Contaminations on Laser-Induced Damage of 1064 nm Anti-Reflective Coatings

We investigate the influence of vacuum organic contaminations on laser-induced damage threshold （LIDT） of optical coatings. Anti-reflective （AIR） coatings at 1064 nm made by Ta2 O5/SiO2 are deposited by the ion beam sputtering method. The LIDTs of AR coatings are measured in vacuum and in atmosphere, respectively. It is exhibited that contaminations in vacuum are easily to be absorbed onto optical surface because of lower pressure, and they become origins of damage, resulting in the decrease of LIDT from 24.5J/cm^2 in air to 15.TJ/cm^2 in vacuum. The LIDT of coatings in vacuum has is slightly changed compared with the value in atmosphere after the organic contaminations are wiped off. These results indicate that organic contaminations are the main reason of the LIDT decrease in vacuum. Additionally, damage morphologies have distinct changes from vacuum to atmosphere because of the differences between the residual stress and thermal decomposability of filmy materials.     

Impact of organic contamination on laser-induced damage threshold of high reflectance coatings in vacuum

The influence of organic contamination in vacuum on the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of coatings is studied. TiO₂/SiO₂ dielectric mirrors with high reflection at 1064 nm are deposited by the electron beam evaporation method. The LIDTs of mirrors are measured in vacuum and atmosphere, respectively. It is found that the contamination in vacuum is easily attracted to optical surfaces because of the low pressure and becomes the source of damage. LIDTs of mirrors have a little change in vacuum compared with in atmosphere when the organic contamination is wiped off. The results indicate that organic contamination is a significant reason to decrease the LIDT. N₂ molecules in vacuum can reduce the influence of the organic contaminations and prtectect high reflectance coatings.     

Ultra-Narrow Dual-Channel Filter Based on Symmetrical Sampled Fibre Bragg Grating

A kind of ultra-narrow dual-channel filter is proposed in principle and demonstrated experimentally. This filter is designed by means of two sampled fibre Bragg gratings （SFBGs）, where one is periodic O-π sampling and the other is symmetrical spatial sampling. The former can create two stopbands in the transmission spectra and the latter can produce two ultra-narrow passbands. Our filter has the 3-dB bandwidth of about 1 pm, whose value is two orders of magnitude less than the bandwidth of the traditional SFBG filters. The proposed filter has a merit that the channel spacing remains unchanged when tuning the filter.     

Large forbidden band in one-dimensional multi-layered structure containing exponentially graded materials

In the present communication, we have presented band spectra and reflectance properties of one-dimensional multi-layered structure containing dielectric exponentially graded and simple dielectric layers. This study has been performed theoretically by using transfer matrix method. In this paper we have taken the multi-layered structure where refractive index of odd layers is varying continuously along the direction perpendicular to the surface of the layer in exponential form. The effect of the graded profiles are studied and compared with the conventional multi-layered structure of suitable contrast of refractive indices in detail. In this study the materials are considered as non-magnetic and layers other than the graded are taken to be homogeneous and isotropic dielectric medium of constant refractive index. It has been found that the introduction of graded layers enhanced the forbidden band gaps and affects the reflectance of electromagnetic wave spectra significantly. By changing the grading profiles and the contrast, we obtained the forbidden band gaps and the reflectance of such structural change accordingly. Therefore, introducing a graded exponential layer of dielectric in the one-dimensional multi-layered structure provides possible mechanism for enhancing the reflectance as well as the forbidden gap in the optical region. Such multi-layered structure may be useful in the design of a broadband filter.     

Theoretical Study on Absorption of Magnetically Tunable Terahertz Quantum-Well Photodetectors

Because of the Zeeman splitting effect in diluted semiconductor (Zn,Cd,Mn)Se, the absorption spectrum of ZnSe/(Zn,Cd,Mn)Se quantum wells can be adjusted by magnetic field effectively. Within the effective-mass approximation, the conduction electronic structure and the absorption spectrum of ZnSe/(Zn,Cd,Mn)Se quantum wells subjected to in-plane magnetic fields are investigated. Our theoretical results show that it is possible to use the ZnSe/(Zn,Cd,Mn)Se quantum well as magnetically tunable terahertz photodetectors.     

Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Study on Surface Roughness and Optical Property of AZO Films Prepared by Direct-Current Magnetron Reactive Sputtering Method

All as-deposited AZO films by direct current magnetron reactive sputtering （DC-MS） exhibit ZnO characteristic （002） and （103） diffraction peaks. Especially, AZO films prepared at 200℃ show a strongest （002） c-axis pref- erential orientation due to the minimum stress along the （002） orientation. The results show that larger stress easily induces a rougher surface. The film real and imaginary parts of dielectric constants show a sharp changes near the optical absorption edge due to the interband direct transition. The film blue and red shifts of the optical absorption edge can be explained in terms of the change of Free-electron concentration in as-deposited AZO films.     

Effect of Density and Surface Roughness on Optical Properties of Silicon Carbide Optical Components

The effect of density and surface roughness on the optical properties of silicon carbide optical components is investigated. The density is the major factor of the total reflectance while the surface roughness is the major factor of the diffuse reflectance. The specular reflectance of silicon carbide optical components can be improved by increasing the density and decreasing the surface roughness, in the form of reducing bulk absorption and surface-related scattering, respectively. The contribution of the surface roughness to the specular reflectance is much greater than that of the density. When the rms surface roughness decreases to 2.228nm, the specular reflectance decreases to less than 0. 7% accordingly.     

All-Optical AND Logic Gate without Additional Input Beam by Utilizing Cross Polarization Modulation Effect

A novel design of all-optical AND gate is proposed by using cross polarization modulation effect in a semiconductor optical amplifier. In this scheme, an additional continuous-wave beam is not required as that in traditional scheme. AND output is obtained on either of two input signal wavelengths. The AND scheme is numerically simulated and experimentally demonstrated at a bit rate of 10 Gb/s successfully.     

Omni-directional reflection bands in one-dimensional plasma dielectric photonic crystals

In this paper the omni-directional reflection bands in one-dimensional plasma photonic crystal (PPC) have been studied theoretically. We present the study of plasma photonic crystal, having alternate regions of plasma?dielectric (Al₂O₃ or ZnS). Reflectances from this periodic multilayered structure in TE- and TM-modes are calculated for different angles of incidence in microwave region for omni-directional reflection bands. The reflectance is obtained by solving a Maxwell's equation using a translational matrix method. In addition to this, we have also studied the effect of variation of plasma width as well as plasma density on the reflection properties of plasma dielectric photonic crystal in TE- and TM-modes. The study of reflectance bands of such plasma photonic crystals shows that it can be used as omni-directional reflector.     

Optical properties of organic-inorganic hybrid films prepared by the two-step growth process

Thin films of microcrystalline (C₈H₁₇NH₃)₂PbBr₄ have been prepared by the two-step growth process as follows: (1) precipitation of nanometer-sized PbBr₂ particles on substrates by vapor deposition and then (2) growth of (C₈H₁₇NH₃)₂PbBr₄ films by exposing PbBr₂ particles to C₈H₁₇NH₃Br vapor. Atomic force microscope observations reveal that the substrate is fully covered with nanometer-sized rodlike precipitates. X-ray diffraction studies suggest that (C₈H₁₇NH₃)₂PbBr₄ films are found to be microcrystalline form, single phase and highly oriented with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. (C₈H₁₇NH₃)₂PbBr₄ films show a clear exciton absorption and free-exciton emission even at room temperature. At low temperatures below 40 K, the emission band separates into three bands at 3.07 (A-band), 3.14 (B-band) and 3.20 (C-band) eV, respectively. Both A- and C-bands correspond to the free-exciton emission with large binding energies. On the contrary, time-resolved PL spectra indicate that the B-band is attributed to phosphorescence formed by the intersystem crossing.     

Removal of interminiband interactions in dynamic Wannier-Stark ladder by means of a pulse train with periodic repetition

A quasienergy structure of a dynamic Wannier-Stark ladder (DWSL) that is driven by a pulse train with periodic repetition is analyzed. Here, novel properties on coherent control realized by means of tuning a combination of laser parameters are revealed. In particular, we report a striking property that interminiband interactions due to both static and dynamic Zener tunnelings are completely removed from the DWSL by utilizing the periodic pulse train with either square or full-cycle saw-toothed unit-pulse-shape in a temporal domain, regardless of magnitude of Dc- and Ac-electric fields exerted on the original superlattices.     

Numerical Analysis of Nano-Aperture Light Source for High-Density Optical Data Storage

Two unconventional nano-aperture light sources, an L-shaped nano-aperture source and a 3D nano-aperture source for high-density optical data storage, are numerically investigated. With incidence of a Gaussian beam, the spot size of the Poynting vector coupled into the recording medium is 130 × 175 nm^2 for the L-aperture and 120 × 135 nm^2 for the 3D nano-aperture. The quantitative analyses indicate that the unconventional nanoaperture sources can provide enough power density to record marks in the commercial recording medium. It is feasible to use a laser diode with a nano-aperture as an active nanometer light source for high-density optical data storage.     

A Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Study of TiO2 Thin Films Prepared by dc Reactive Magnetron Sputtering： Annealing Temperature Effect

TiO2 thin films are obtained by dc reactive magnetron sputtering. A target of titanium （99.995%） and a mixture of argon and oxygen gases are used to deposit TiO2 films on to silicon wafers （100）. The crystalline structure of deposited and annealed film are deduced by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry （VASE） and supported by x-ray diffractometry. The optical properties of the films are examined by VASE. Measurements of ellipsometry are performed in the spectral range O. 72-3.55 e V at incident angle 75^o. Several SE models, categorized by physical and optical models, are proposed based on the ＇simpler better＇ rule and curve-fits, which are generated and compared to the experimental data using the regression analysis. It has been found that the triple-layer physical model together with the Cody-Lorentz dispersion model offer the most convincing result. The as-deposited films are found to be inhomogeneous and amorphous, whereas the annealed films present the phase transition to anatase and rutile structures. The refractive index of TiO2 thin films increases with annealing temperature. A more detailed analysis further reveals that thickness of the top sub-layer increases, whereas the region of the bottom amorphous sub-layer shrinks when the films are annealed at 300℃.     

Development of high-throughput combinatorial terahertz time-domain spectrometer and its application to ternary composition-spread film

We have developed a high-throughput combinatorial terahertz (THz) time-domain spectrometer (CTTDS) and applied to a ternary composition-spread film. This technique has possibilities to reveal a variety of physical properties such as complex refractive index, complex dielectric constant, and complex electrical conductivity. Further, this method is a non-contact and non-destructive way to map those physical properties. The demonstration of THz transmittance mapping of ternary composition-spread film, with a spatial resolution of 1 mm, reveals metallic behavior in specific range of film compositions. This prospective technique may serve as a convenient tool for the high-throughput, non-contact, non-destructive, and spatially resolved characterization suited for combinatorial composition-spread films.     

Investigation of a Tabletop Confocal Micro X-Ray Fluorescence Setup

A new tabletop confocal micro x-ray fluorescence setup with an MCBM 50-0.6B x-ray tube is assembled. The confocal micro x-ray fluorescence setup includes two lenses, a polycapillary full lens in the excitation channel and a polycapillary half lens in the detection channel. A Ni-Cr wire in diameter 25μm is used to investigate the FWHM of three-dimensional confocal volume. A basso-relievo capital letter of a 1-jiao RMB coin of 2005 version is studied with this confocal micro x-ray fluorescence setup.